The College Fix

Admissions committee must ‘ensure representation from those who identify as BIPOC and LGBTQ+,’ memo states

A leaked memo sent to University of California Los Angeles medical students appears to show the institution is still discriminating on the basis of race in its admissions office.

The memo, published at the Washington Free Beacon, outlines a list of “Guiding Principles for Student Representation” on the UCLA School of Medicine Admissions Committee.

“The Chairs of the [committee] will review all submitted recommendations to ensure representation from those who identify as BIPOC and LGBTQ+,” the April 8 memo states.

In other words, UCLA is requiring “the committee to consider race when picking students to serve as admissions officers,” according to the Free Beacon:

The memo has a UCLA watermark and was sent to all second- and third-year medical students, the person with knowledge of the matter said. It appears to have been approved by the medical school’s Faculty Executive Committee, which has oversight of admissions policy.

UCLA did not respond to a request for comment.

The public university also did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The College Fix, asking if it could confirm the memo came from UCLA and, if so, whether the university has taken any action to address it.

Meanwhile, UCLA is facing a civil rights investigation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for allegedly discriminating against students based on their race in its admissions office, the Free Beacon reported in March:

HHS’s Office of Civil Rights will investigate whether the school’s admissions office, led by anesthesiologist Jennifer Lucero, holds black and Hispanic applicants to a lower academic standard than white and Asian applicants, according to a source familiar with the investigation. California law has banned racial preferences in university admissions for nearly three decades, and the Supreme Court followed suit in 2023.

The probe is the direct result of a Washington Free Beacon report last year that included testimony from admissions officers and showed that students were failing basic exams in record droves.

Whistleblowers alleged that students’ performance on those tests, known as shelf exams, reflected the declining quality of admitted students on Lucero’s watch. According to four people who served with her on the admissions committee, Lucero has frequently pushed through unqualified minority candidates to diversify the school. Other doctors alleged that Lucero attempted to axe qualified white applicants to the residency program in anesthesiology, where she serves as the vice chair for inclusive excellence.

Earlier this year, the group Students Against Racial Discrimination filed a lawsuit against the University of California system, The College Fix reported.

The group of students, parents, academics, and citizens allege the public university’s admissions process gives “discriminatory preferences to non-Asian racial minorities.”

The UC system allows “applicants with inferior academic credentials to obtain admission at the expense of rejected candidates with better academic credentials,” the lawsuit alleges.

However, UC spokesperson Omar Rodriguez told The Fix at the time that the lawsuit is “meritless,” and the university complies with the state law banning the consideration of race in admissions.

MORE: Civil rights complaint filed over ‘race-selective’ scholarships at Indiana University

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: UCLA medical students walk down the hallway. UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine

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